Turkish billet imports under HS code 720711 more than quadrupled on-year in March to 364,379 tonnes. They also rose 56% from February, Kallanish notes from Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) data.

Besides Russia, Middle East and North African countries, traditionally large customers of Turkish billet and long products, dominated billet supply into Turkey, combining to provide some 184,000t of the March total.

Russia was by far the main supplier with 147,622t, followed by Oman with 76,507t and Algeria with 60,530t. Romania, which supplied over 11,000t in March 2022, was nowhere to be seen this year. Kuwait-origin intake was 31,232t in March, the first of 2023 after the country supplied 45,128t in full-year 2022.

Compared to February, Oman supply rebounded from only 4,246t, but Algerian supply declined 36% and India disappeared from the list of suppliers.

Ukraine remained absent in March.

Average price of billet imports in March was $576/tonne versus $714/t a year earlier. But it rose from $522/t in February.

Turkish scrap imports meanwhile ended their downward trend in March, rising 13.3% on-year to 2.346 million tonnes (see Kallanish passim).

First-quarter Turkish billet imports under HS code 720711 thus surged 147% on-year to 923,954t, with Russia, Algeria and Oman the main suppliers in that order.